


Promises, Sex and Relationship Things

by Jenny_Starseed



Series: Couples Stuff or How Deborah and Martin Negotiate the Beginnings of a relationship [1]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: F/M, Genderswap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-30
Updated: 2012-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 08:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/329616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jenny_Starseed/pseuds/Jenny_Starseed
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martin doesn’t think it will work between them.  But Deborah Richardson always has a way of convincing him that it will.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises, Sex and Relationship Things

“Martin, as your first officer, I suggest we sleep together.”

Martin almost spat out his morning coffee all over the instruments, but settled for choking on it instead. Deborah could only watch with amusement as Martin fought to regain control, his face very red with embarrassment. 

“And how does that sound to you, sir?” 

“Excuse me?” was the only thing Martin could manage to say after a long coughing spell. 

“Sex, Martin. Don’t worry, I won’t cry sexual harassment. Though it would be entertaining if you tried. To sexually harass me that is.”

“Sexually harass you? As if anyone could,” Martin retorted, finally regaining his prickly composure. 

“No, I’ll have their bollocks in a vice-like grip,” said Deborah, her voice artificially airy and light. “But don’t worry, Captain. I will let you touch me in every way you imagined, with your bollocks intact.”

“Deborah! I don’t think this appropriate professional banter,” hissed Martin. 

She rolled her eyes. “As if playing the Britneys of Britain would constitute professional banter. You haven’t said no. You desperately want it as much as I do. I just don’t have the patience you have for this sexual tension and torment from afar business.”

“Is this how you seduce all your men?”

“No, this is how I seduce you because it’s painful to watch you flirt. Romance is dead, I gave up on it after my third marriage. You’re avoiding my question.”

“Deborah, this is not the place to talk about this. What if Carolyn walks in and over-hears us?” 

“I assure you she won’t. Arthur is making our lunch right now, meaning Carolyn is busy making sure Arthur doesn’t microwave tinfoil again,” explained Deborah. “Let’s start this again. Heeeey Chief! I might be wrong, but I think we might have...unresolved sexual tension! This makes me feel...aroused and frustrated. One thing we can do is have a quick satisfying shag on a cheap bed that smells like moth balls when we land. Now, how does that sound to you, chief?”

Martin said nothing. He looked straight ahead and studiously pretended that he didn’t hear Deborah. 

“I don’t want to cheapen you like that, Deborah,” Martin said finally. “You’re a bright and beautiful woman in your own right. You don’t need a lecherous captain’s grubby hands all over you.” 

“No, I’d rather have your very clean and clumsy hands on me.”

“Deborah! Be serious. We are professionals doing a very dangerous job. It would be very bad if our working relationship was compromised because of...uncontrolled urges.”

“Exactly,” said Deborah sharply. “We should fuck each other’s brains out in a controlled setting of a hotel room so I don’t pounce on you in the flight deck. I agree with you completely.”

“You’re deliberately misunderstanding me,” huffed Martin. “I don’t mean lust! I mean, if I wanted a dirty shag, I could get that anywhere—“

Deborah snorted. “Only if you paid for it.”

“As I was saying! I don’t...I mean, you...just...could we be serious about this for once? With no innuendos and dirty jokes?”

“I don’t understand it, Martin,” said Deborah. She was no longer in a teasing mood. “I slept with Cabin crew all the time while I was at Air England. I don’t understand why you need to be all chivalrous about it. I’m not some kind of fragile beauty in a tough man’s world. I assure you, I won’t get hurt.”

“But I would,” mumbled Martin, so quietly that Deborah almost didn’t hear it. 

“Martin—“

“NO! Can you drop this? Is it really so hard to believe that I don’t want to cheapen our relationship with sex? I’m not being chivalrous, god knows I want to...you know...do it with you.”

What kind of conservative notions of romance does Martin have inside his head? Sure he doesn’t...? Deborah’s eyes widen with a realization. He wants a relationship. She always thought Martin was being a hypocritical prude, she’s seen how he looks at her while she does the walk around on warm summer days. Huh. What man in their right mind wants a relationship with her? He knows she’ll make a hash of it, which is why...he won’t sleep with her. Oh.

“You want to hold hands and have dinner,” she said slowly. “The couples stuff.”

“Yes, the couples stuff, as you so eloquently put it,” said Martin. If Martin could, he’d be crossing his arms right now if he wasn’t flying the plane. “I want to do all those things you sneer at, the dinner and the holding hands, exchanging door keys and keeping toothbrushes in each other’s flat. Boring things you never want.”

Deborah should have bit her tongue whenever she spoke about her ex-husbands with Martin. The thing was, she wouldn’t mind holding hands and having dinners with Martin. She ate enough with Martin to know she liked his company despite all the ways in which he got on her nerves. He was a good deal more considerate than her past husbands and he had a guileless charm that was all his own. She was likely a little in love with the daft bugger. That was the only explanation for the reason why she secretly liked his prissy manner and awkwardness. She had an embarrassing way of dropping in on him at home, begging him to alleviate her boredom when there was nothing on the telly. 

Having a relationship with Martin Crieff was a possibility she hadn’t seriously considered, and now that it was proposed to her, she wanted it. She didn’t know if they would work out as a couple, but Deborah was damned if she didn’t give it her best shot. It was either that, or sabotage every date Martin will ever have forever until they were both dead. She bit her lip, she had to proceed carefully with Martin if this was to work, no more bludgeoning the poor man with her blunt advances.

“I don’t sneer at dinner and handholding” she said quietly after a long pause.

“You do too!” said Martin, disbelieving. “You could never stand the sight of Herc and Carolyn together, eating their posh sandwiches together while being thoroughly sentimental.”

“Carolyn’s my boss,” retorted Deborah. “And Herc was an ex of mine. I would like to see you be all content to watch them make eyes at each other while you’re trying to do work.” 

“You went on about Henry’s sweaty hands—“

“They were only sweaty because he knew he was cheating on me with his yoga teacher and he was a bad liar and he knew it.”

“—or Jim’s choice of romantic restaurants—“

“Only because I realized too late that he had a gambling addiction who couldn’t afford those dinners that he guilt tripped me into paying for.”

“Alright, what about Christopher?” challenged Martin. “He was a perfectly fine bloke whom you broke up with because the sex was terrible. I can’t speak to him anymore, he’s always asking about you whenever I see him in Fitton.”

“Martin, you know he was not perfectly fine. As handsome as he was, he cared for nothing but Football. And you hate football as much as I do.”

“He was my cousin, you could have at least make an effort to be kinder to him when you broke up,” said Martin in a small voice. “Can we just forget about this? Please?”

“Martin, we already do those relationship things. We just need to add the keys, toothbrushes and the holding hands bit,” explained Deborah, kindly and quietly. 

“And the sex,” added Martin.

“Please, Martin. I would like to give it a try.”

“But if we bugger this up—“

“Then I will take the blame.”

“Ha! That will be the day. You never take the blame for anything, you’re that bloody stubborn.”

“Martin, couldn’t we start small?” suggested Deborah. “I will pay for your coffee when we land. That Viennese coffee you always like but can never afford whenever we land in Austria. That’s all I ask, a coffee date. Half an hour and then you can tell me to piss off if you still think I’m playing with you.”

Deborah tried to keep her expression neutral and composed while butterflies had decided colonize her stomach. Martin said nothing. He pretended to check his instruments when Deborah already knew he checked them three times in the last hour. It was infuriating and adorable, damn the man. 

Eventually, Martin gave up. “Oh, alright. You know I could never resist you.”

Deborah shot him her most charming smile that she knew he could never resist. He always blushed so nicely when she did that.   
“You won’t regret this. I promise,” she declared boldly, because Deborah Richardson never broke her promises.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve written genderswap!Douglas. Written for [this prompt](http://cabinpres-fic.dreamwidth.org/783.html?thread=2969871#cmt2969871): _It would just be really interesting to see how the dynamic changes if he were a young woman, about Martin's age, but with the same Richardson personality._
> 
> Also scroll the prompt post for the adorable artwork an anon drew of Deborah/Martin. I didn’t have any inspiration for Deborah/Martin until I saw the anon’s artwork.


End file.
